DDAL05-09 Durlag's Tomb (5e)

East of Beregost, nestled in the outskirts of the Wood of Sharp Teeth, Durlag’s Tower has intrigued and yet stymied adventurers for decades. Stuffed full of mechanical traps and arcane wards, and rumored to be inhabited by fiends, very few have managed to extract any REAL treasure from the former home of Durlag Trollkiller.

However, a powerful item in the ancient fight against the giants is said to be housed there, and the cloud giant Baron Rajiram has committed significant resources toward recovering it. After a pleasant tea in her garden, SEER calls upon you to beat him there and put a stop to his efforts!

As a player for this mod I can appreciate the usage of lava terrain against the players as a deterrent as well as a hiding spot for the devils. There was more than one way to bypass some of the puzzles as well which was very interesting to figure out.

Matthew WJanuary 14, 2018 8:52 pm UTC

PURCHASER

Unlike Durlag's Tower, his tomb tests your noodle and fighting prowess with equal frequency. Successfully navigating the Tomb will require you to think quickly and be flexible in your tactics. An advance to the next room is not a given.

The second room challenge is a memorable one for many reasons. A party might point to a common spell being able to simplify this encounter. I'd argue it doesn't solve the problem - so you have to hurry and try other ideas. Moreover, many common combat spells will assure you have a bad day.

The party of friends I DMed for are veterans and made a lot of good decisions in the third room. I regret I wasn't able to grapple with the foes that add an extra challenge to a simple task. Party ingenuity saved their bacon after I gave them all harrowing experience. Always feed the fear of the character who is most careful or least prepared. Careful consideration is not your friend with this challenge.

The next room requires you answer puzzles and consider...See more a basic tenet of your life as an adventurer.

The final battle should be memorable, as moving through the Tomb provides no true opportunities to even short rest. Resources could be quite low as you finish and try to accomplish the final combat. Will your players be tempted to give up on their intended goal?

Jude FNovember 25, 2017 7:59 pm UTC

I've run Durlag's Tower and Durlag's Tomb. The Nalfeshnee and chain devils in the first module provided a fantastic encounter for the party. The party was unimpressed by the fact that the rooms and puzzles in the second module seemed to be "copy/paste" versions of previous rooms with only minor variations. The three horned devils proved to be more than a problem to the party as well, particularly to a fighter with a potion of flying named Steve Irwin. He grappled two of the horned devils, who both managed to incapacitate the fighter. Upon being knocked out in midair, he was dropped to his untimely demise in the magma. However, after the party sold his band of war elephants and personal ship, the ZSS Stingray (Zhentarim Ship), he was able to afford being resurrected. This 4/5 adventure was made into a 5/5, simply through role-playing.

Jordan VAugust 08, 2017 8:03 pm UTC

The first time I played this module I was completely confused and didn't understand a lot of the puzzles. The firespirits room completely confused me, and if I rolled 1 less on a con save I would have had to retire my character. Now that I have run the module, I have come to gain a lot of respect for the module. It is incredibly fun, doesn't feel like a dungeon crawl, has a great magic item, and all these complaints people have with the module should be taken up with their DM. The teleportation mechanic is explained by Hsing in the quest-giving section of the module... if your DM decides to give you that information.

I will say though, as amazing as the combat and puzzles for this module are, clearly the author did not proofread the Module. DMs, get your pen highlighter and white-out because this module has so many typos, redundancies, information from one floor is put onto another floor, and the Firespirits puzzle is extremely vague and requires DM interpretation.

I recommend it, just...See more be sure to thoroughly prepare ahead of time.

Andrew PMay 18, 2017 6:25 pm UTC

As a player:

Module works well when played after tower but by itself leaves a hook to be desired. It has an interesting way to deal with high level spellcaster which I think is a nice way to let the martial classes shine a bit more. Reward is intriguing and different. One of my favorite 5 modules. 5/5

April 07, 2017 10:56 pm UTC

PURCHASER

I played in this yesterday and was looking forward to a more puzzle-centric dungeon. Unfortunately, I have to say this is the most UNfun AL adventure I've ever played in. Two encounters in, my character cast a core spell to wizards (Misty Step) and was forced to make CON save with no explanation what it was for. Had I known, I could have used a portent die to alter the results before the roll, but I didn't and ended up with a nat 1. POOF, the DM says I'm in the City of Brass. So, yeah, had no way of getting back without taking a long rest to prepare new spells.

So, long story short, if you like pissing off your players and telling them to go pack sand for no good reason after only 1 hour of a 4 hour session, avoid this module.

Alan PApril 08, 2017 11:11 am UTC

Your DM failed you here. While I'm sorry you had a bad experience, perhaps ask the DM to review the module more thoroughly in the future? There is plenty of information about why this happened.

Curtis GApril 08, 2017 2:45 pm UTC

I have to agree with Alan on this one. I have DMed and played this one and I find it to be extremely fun....and there are multiple battles and several great puzzles....a uncommon balance of intellectual and strength based challenges.

And actually pretty well written. There was only one room that I had trouble with at first until I really figured out what was going on.

CHARLES FFebruary 24, 2017 10:09 pm UTC

I ran this for my AL. Really fun, classic dungeon.

Things to keep in mind:
-For HUGE fun, keep in mind that any time any player uses teleportation magic, they have to roll a con save, and if they fail too bad, they get transported to whatever plane of existence the DM prefers :) May be too punishing, or may be VERY fun if done right :) My players loved the surprise when this happened, since none of their characters understood the magic wards on the stone.
-The alcohol trap is a little confusing, so read it a few times and use your imagination to communicate it clearly to players.
-The final battle is extremely tough and fun!
-When players have got the treasure and beat/otherwise evaded the boss monsters, I had the dwarves of Mithril hall also burst in and argue with the Lord's Alliance agent for posession of the ancient texts. Players had a ton of fun doing negotiations.

Curtis GJanuary 09, 2017 2:26 pm UTC

I haven't had a chance to run this one yet....next week...but I do notice a typo on the cert "this weapon and gain advantage ongain advantage on one Charisma" .... looks like there are some duplicate words that didn't get edited out.

A continuation of DDAL05-08, this adventure continues to encourage caution amongst characters as they navigate this dwarven structure. More puzzles are available in this module, as well as encounters that benefit from a little more strategy than just [...]

Good dungeon crawl, some nice traps, and wonderful lore on dwarven dieties. This has it all. I really enjoyed season 5 overall, but I found the high tier content lacking. Durlag's Tower and Tomb are the exception [...]

Thats not a dungeon crawl, this is a dungeon crawl! Lots of fun situations with the environmental effects and puzzles. I had players paranoid about EVERYTHING by hour 3 so it was a fun time. Replayablity is a bit low but that happens sometimes. Still [...]

I have experienced this module as both a DM and as a player, and it was fun both times. While I prefer the first half of this duo (Durlag's Tower), the Tomb aspect was a good time as well. Definitely falls under the dungeon crawl category, with some [...]

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